The present invention relates to a coffee maker that extracts coffee solution by spraying hot water over coffee grounds.
In a conventional way to produce coffee of superb aroma and taste, coffee grounds are swelled and steamed by hot water, first of all, so that an essential ingredient of the coffee tends to be extracted. Then a proper amount of hot water is supplied intermittently to the coffee grounds for extracting coffee solution. This conventional coffee maker with a steaming function supplies intermittently hot water, which is stored in a hot-water tank built in the coffee maker, to coffee grounds using a siphon phenomenon.
Further, another step is taken to brew tastier coffee, i.e., the hot water runs through water-purifying agents such as activated charcoal in order to remove impurities such as chlorine before the hot water is supplied to a coffee extracting room.
Such a conventional coffee maker is disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Non-Examined Publication No. H06-284971. According to this invention, hot waterxe2x80x94supplied intermittently from a tank utilizing the siphon phenomenonxe2x80x94runs downward through the water-purifying agents such as activated charcoal. Thus, the hot water to be purified does not contact the purifying agents for long enough. Therefore, there is a need for a lot of purifying agents, and thus a purifying room has to be enlarged. However, it is difficult to prepare such a room for purifying the water, and it also increases the cost.
If a lot of purifying agents are used, a certain amount of hot water is retained in the agents, and an amount of the water remaining in the purifying room is thus increased when the supply of hot water is finished.
Also in this conventional coffee maker, the siphon phenomenon starts not before the hot water exceeds a given quantity in the hot-water tank. The hot water remaining in the tank at the end of extracting the coffee solution is evacuated therefrom by applying pressure into the tank with steam produced from a heater. Therefore, the tank is integrated airtightly or semi-airtightly into the coffee maker, and the tank is difficult to wash away scales or wipe away drops of water attached to an inner wall of the tank.
The present invention addresses the problems discussed above, and aims to provide a coffee maker that has the following features: an amount of water remaining in a water-purifying room is reduced; hot water is supplied intermittently in a stable manner to a coffee-extracting room for extracting tasty coffee solution; and a hot-water tank is cleaned with ease. These features are embodied in a simple construction of the coffee maker.
The coffee maker of the present invention comprises the following elements:
(a) a coffee-extracting room; and
(b) a hot-water tank accommodating water-purifying agents, and including a siphon mechanism, the hot water tank being disposed between the coffee extracting room and an outlet for supplying hot water to the coffee extracting room.
This structure supplies purified hot water from the tank to the extracting room via the siphon mechanism.
This structure allows the hot water to be supplied intermittently to the extracting room, so that tasty coffee solution is extracted due to steaming effect, and the siphon mechanism sucks water remaining in the tank, thereby reducing an amount of water left in the tank.
Another coffee maker of the present invention comprises the following elements:
(a) a water tank;
(b) a heater for heating the water supplied from the water tank and boiling it into hot water;
(c) a hot-water tank for storing the hot water supplied from the heater via a supplying path and including a siphon mechanism; and
(d) a coffee extracting room into which the hot water is supplied via the siphon mechanism.
The hot water tank can be separated from the supplying path and detachable from a main body of the coffee maker.
This structure allows the coffee maker to produce coffee with a rich and full aroma and taste due to steaming effect by intermittent supply of the hot water. This structure also allows users to detach the hot-water tank from the main body of the coffee maker and wipe away drops of water as well as wash away scales from the tank with ease.